Archives for: July 2008

Ahhhhh.....finally! A chance to actually sit, and relax. My first real day in almost two months, where I haven't had a list of things to try and plow through each day. After my electronics mayhem in May, all but the tv has been repaired. Unfortunately, that was not to be all of my mayhem. But at least now we know how the word mayhem came to be, and it certainly wasn't because it was a month of catastrophic sewing mishaps. Before the month was over, I managed to FUBAR my computer as well. For those that aren't familiar with the acronym, the polite version stands for, "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition". However, during the moment of crisis, the first word is usually replaced with a much more direct F word. I am just now getting a handle on that whole issue as well.

Enough of the depressing stuff, let's get to the good stuff. After round one of my mayhem, I was determined to salvage my month of May. And what better way to do that, than to wreak havoc.....umm...mischief in someone's world?

Earlier in the year, my Better Half's daughter had expressed interest in wanting to paint her bedroom. So I told her that if she helped me paint one of the other rooms at their house this summer, then I would try to get her room painted by the end of this year. She readily agreed.

Well, as luck would have it, her school class was headed to an environmental camp in Maine in May for four days. Once I found out that she was going, the wheels in my mind started spinning. Under protest, mind you, but they started spinning. Miss M was going to be in for one big surprise when she got home!

In order to be a good mischief maker, one must possess three elements. Planning, planning, and s-i-l-e-n-c-e. Well, and the appropriate maniacal hand-wringing, and the occasional Mwahahahahahaha. One must also learn to be careful in how they converse with others, and use the proper tenses, so as to not give away anything before your mischief has been unleashed.

As soon as I found out that Miss M. was indeed heading to camp, I put in for a day off at work. The other days that I would need for the project were my regular days off, so I was covered there. My Better Half knew nothing about me asking for a day off, or the impending mischief. If you're going to make mischief, get as many people as you can!

Miss M. hadn't decided on a color yet, so I had to help her along. I told her that I had a number of projects to complete this summer (I do), and the sooner I had a color, the sooner I could get all of the supplies together. That way, when I could fit it into my schedule, I'd have everything ready. She fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. She had decided on a color, and I was off!

Being that this was the longest that she had ever spent away from home, I knew that there was a good chance that she would get homesick. Since the camp encouraged parents to write to their kids, I jotted down the address when no one was around. I then bought two cards, and sent them to the camp shortly before she was to go. (Planning, people, planning!) Again, my Better Half knew nothing of my actions.

As the first day of mischief arrived, I was itching to work. I waited until I knew that my Better Half had left to drop Miss M. off at school, and then I headed to the house. Throughout the day, while I took breaks to wait for the paint to dry, I would e-mail my Better Half from her house. However, I never let on that I was AT her house. And unbeknownst to her, before the first day was over, she had already derailed some of my mischievous undertakings. *sigh*

As my Better Half's son arrived home from school that day, he found me in his sister's room, painting away. And when he found out that he was the FIRST to know about my evil plans, if the grin on his face had grown any wider, his lower jaw would have popped right off! (Get as many as you can!)

As the afternoon was drawing to a close, I knew that it wouldn't be too long before my Better Half would arrive home from work. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough in cleaning up for the day. As I was scraping paint off my hands in the bathroom, she walked by the bathroom, stopped in the doorway, and asked, "What are you doing?". With head hung low, and trying to stifle a grin, I replied, "Trying to hide the evidence!" She noticed my painting pants, and shot back, "You've been painting Miss M.'s room, haven't you?". Ummmmm....yeah. *snicker*

Due to a meeting that my Better Half had forgotten about, and that I had noticed on the calendar, I had to divulge that I had taken the next day off. She had her meeting, and her son had baseball practice during the same time. I told her that I would pick him up from practice, and to stop ruining my mischievous plans. She then asked, "And when were you going to tell me that you had the day off? When I got home?". Well...yeah.

Before my Better Half found out about my plans, she had offered to let me pick up Miss M. when she arrived back from camp. While this put a damper on one plan, it opened up the opportunity for another. Plus I do thoroughly enjoy my time with the kids, and I missed Miss M.'s telling me about her days.

The boy did good, when we picked up his sister from school. He didn't let on that anything was amiss. He acted like it was just another regular day after school. As the time approached for their Mother to arrive home from work, Miss M. still hadn't gone upstairs to her room. I think I was twitching more than the boy was by this point! So I asked her to take her stuff upstairs to unpack. That way, Mom wouldn't have to do it when she got home, and she could listen to all of Miss M.'s stories without having to do anything else. Again, hook, line, and sinker. As she passed her brother on the couch with bags in hand, he looked back at me with a BIG grin on his face.

We listened to her as she walked up the stairs, and heard the doorknob turn as she opened her bedroom door. Then, there was silence. No scream, no thud on the floor (thank goodness!), nothing. Then we heard her slowly walk down the stairs, and enter the living room with a muted grin on her face, as she came over to give me a hug, and say 'thank you'. It is moments like those that make it worth all of the work, and the pain.

Yes, I said pain. After finishing her room that Thursday night, my neck and upper shoulder muscles had all tightened up on me. Bad. I couldn't sleep on my back, nor could I sleep on my sides for any length of time. I could only sleep on my chest, with my chin tucked into my chest, in order to keep my neck muscles stretched. And even then, I couldn't stay comfortable for long. It made for a miserable night, but the look on Miss M.'s face, and her happiness made it all worth it. As my Better Half later told me, "I'm going to have to call your work, and tell them to give you more work. You have too much time on your hands!" My body may lie at rest, but my mind is always active.

If I hadn't found Eat Right 4 Your Type a few years back, I would probably still be the overweight, lethargic, and mentally-fogged person that I used to be. I certainly wouldn't have had the energy, or the creativity, to pull off my mischief in May. So I guess some of the credit (and blame ) should rightly go to Dr. D'Adamo himself.

So the next time you're having a bad day/month/week, redirect that negative energy. Wreak havoc....ummm...mischief into someone elses world. The temporary bumps on your life's highway will be forgotten about before you know it, and you'll bring a smile into someone elses world.